Nexus - 1503 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

GM soybean production and over 90 per cent of this was solely Laws", but Iraqis had no say in them as the country was now for Monsanto's Roundup Ready brand. Engdahl puts it this way: governed out of Washington and its branch office inside the heavily "Argentina had become the world's largest uncontrolled fortified Green Zone in the largest US embassy in the world. experimental laboratory for GMO". Its people had become Bremer Laws imposed the harshest-ever Chicago School-style unwitting lab rats. "shock therapy", of the kind that devastated countries around the In 2005, Brazil's government relented and legalised GMO seeds world since introduced in 1973 in Chile under Pinochet. The for the first time. By 2006, the USA, Argentina and Brazil formula was familiar: mass firings of state employees in the accounted for over 81 per cent of world GM soybean production. hundreds of thousands; unrestricted imports with no tariffs, duties, This "ensure[s] that practically every animal in the world fed inspections or taxes; deregulation; and the largest state liquidation soymeal [is] eating genetically engineered soybeans". It also means sale and privatisation plan since the Soviet Union collapsed. that everyone cating these animals deste same tine unwittingly. Corporate taxes were lowered from en, cent (0 a Mat 15 per rgentina has experienced more fallout which threatens to cent. Foreign investors could own per cent of Iraqi assets spread. Its soybean monoculture has affected the countryside other than oil; they could also repatriate all their profits without hugely, and vast tracts of forest lands have been destroyed. being taxed on them and had no obligation to reinvest in the Traditional farmers close to soybean plantings have been country. Further, they were given 40-year oil production leases. seriously harmed by aerial spraying of Roundup. Their crops The only Saddam-era laws remaining were those restricting trade have been destroyed, because that's what this unions and collective bargaining. Foreign herbicide is engineered to do: kill all plants transnationals, mainly US ones, swooped in without gene-modified resistance. They and devoured everything. Ira ouldn't report that their chickens died and their compete, and the occupation laws assured it. horses were gravely harmed by the aerial Consider Bremer Order 81 of 26 April spraying. Humans have also been affected, 2004 covering patents and their duration. It and can show violent symptoms of nausea, Part of the scheme states: "Farmers shall be prohibited from re- lesions. Other repr claim further fallout HEB UTES) variety". It gave plant varieties patent animals born with severe organ deformities, agribusiness giants holders absolute rights over farmers using lakes filed with dead fish, Inaddton rua | _t© fave free rein genetically engineered and owned by families say that their children developed over that part of the transnationals. Iraqi farmers using them have rosy naciesonsiichoaks" 2m | gegnomy—to radically | ©.-tscansysiniing yes As for higher promised yields from transform Iraq S$ licence fee. Using seeds "similar" to GM soy, results showed harvests A protected, patented varieties could reduced by 5-15 per cent compared food production result in severe fines and imprisonment. with traditional soybean crops plus system intoa model "Plant Variety Protection" (PVP) is at for GMO seeds and plants. "vicious new weeds" that need up to the core of this order—and GMO seeds triple the amount of herbicide to got protection to displace 10,000 years destroy. By the time farmers learn this, of development of plant varieties. it's too late. Iraq's fertile valley between the Engdahl summarises the farmers' Tigris and Euphrates rivers is ideal for plight: "A more perfect scheme of crop planting. Since 8000 BC, farmers human bondage would be hard to have used it to develop "rich seeds of imagine". And it was even worse than almost every variety of wheat used in that. Argentina was the first test case the world today". These varieties have "in a global plan that was decades in now been erased through this GMO the making and absolutely shocking modernisation and industrialisation and awesome in its scope". scheme so that agribusiness could get a foothold in the region and supply the world market. lraq Gets American Seeds of Democracy While Iraqis suffer and starve, GMO giants run the country's Democracy for Iraq meant erasing the "cradle of civilization" agriculture for export. Iraqi farmers are now agribusiness serfs and for unfettered free-market capitalism. In 2003, Iraq was are forced to grow products foreign to the native diet, like wheat conquered for its oil but also to make the country a gigantic free- designed for pasta production. Bremer Laws mandate this and are trade paradise. The scheme was diabolical, elaborate and ugly: inviolable under Article 26 the US-drafted constitution. This blitzkrieg "shock and awe", elaborate PsyOps, fear as a weapon, Article states that the Iraqi government is powerless to change repressive occupation, mass detention and torture, and the fastest, laws made by a foreign occupier. To assure it, US sympathisers most sweeping country remake in history. It happened in weeks. are in every ministry, with those most trusted in key ones. Iraq no longer exists, the country is a wasteland, its people are Engdahl sums up the damage to agriculture: "The forced devastated, and a blank slate was created for unrestrained transformation of Iraq's food production into patented GMO crops corporate pillage on a near-unimaginable scale. is one of the clearest examples of [how] Monsanto and other Part of the scheme was for GMO agribusiness giants to have free GMO giants are forcing [these] crops onto an unwilling or rein over that part of the economy, to radically transform Iraq's food © unknowing world population". They're infesting the planet with production system into a model for GMO seeds and plants. It was them, one country at a time, and it's futile trying to undo the mandated under several of the 100 swiftly implemented "Bremer damage they cause. agribusiness giants to have free rein over that part of the economy—to radically transform Iraq's food production system into a model for GMO seeds and plants. Iraq Gets American Seeds of Democracy Democracy for Iraq meant erasing the "cradle of civilization" for unfettered free-market capitalism. In 2003, Iraq was conquered for its oil but also to make the country a gigantic free- trade paradise. The scheme was diabolical, elaborate and ugly: blitzkrieg "shock and awe", elaborate PsyOps, fear as a weapon, repressive occupation, mass detention and torture, and the fastest, most sweeping country remake in history. It happened in weeks. Iraq no longer exists, the country is a wasteland, its people are devastated, and a blank slate was created for unrestrained corporate pillage on a near-unimaginable scale. Part of the scheme was for GMO agribusiness giants to have free rein over that part of the economy, to radically transform Iraq's food production system into a model for GMO seeds and plants. It was mandated under several of the 100 swiftly implemented "Bremer APRIL — MAY 2008 NEXUS + 23 Part of the scheme was for GMO www. nexusmagazine.com